


Fool Me Twice

by ThatwasJustaDream



Series: Thank you fics - 2014 Brag Book on the LJ 1_million_words comm [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: But.... - Freeform, Community: 1-million-words, I like Mary, M/M, Slash, my guess re: Mary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-31
Updated: 2014-12-31
Packaged: 2018-03-04 14:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3072311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A scene/future-ficlet in which John struggles with what to tell his young daughter and Sherlock is there for him with answers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fool Me Twice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Neurotoxia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neurotoxia/gifts).



“She’ll be asking direct questions soon..." John said.

It wasn't lost on Sherlock how he went immediately for the whisky bottle these days, the moment Amelia was asleep. 

“How am I going to answer them?”

“You’ve done an excellent job so far. Integrating Mary into her life," Sherlock stayed in his chair, watching him, content to see John was only pouring a short one tonight. "You’ve made her into a guardian angel of sorts."

“Funny, that? Isn’t it?”

“I don’t know about funny. I would say.... it’s the kindest sort of lie.”

“Ah, yes, but a lie of omission only. I’ve told her that her mother loved her – so much. Told her how thoroughly absorbed Mary was in caring for her, talking to her, reading her stories when she was a week old. All true. This, though….”

He didn’t have to finish the sentence; they’d both seen it – Amelia’s widening, four-year-old sense of the world, so different from her at three. The questions she was asking about their less than usual family becoming more numerous and probing as she got to know her pre-school friends.

Her inching closer by the week to asking who Mary had been - beyond simply being her mother. What Mary was about.

“You'll tell her… that she was a woman of principals. A focused, determined…mmmmmm...career person. Yes, very true, isn't it? And you can tell her how she never wavered once she had a goal. Ever.”

"It'll only hold so far," John sipped at his drink, fiddled with the book on the table next to him but never quite picked it up. "Sooner or later she'll know I got played. Twice. That she was here specifically to use me...use...you. Fool me twice....."

"If there's shame to be doled out, we each get a share," Sherlock said it with enough force to end the conversation. "Thought we'd agreed on that a long time ago?"

"Yes. We did. I lied, though. I still think...I should have known. Without ever popping that damn drive in a port, I should have..."

"Take that with us?" Sherlock reached a foot to kick John's, nodding toward the glass in his hand. "We can retire early. I think...you need distracting."

John's face froze, then relaxed as the rest of him did too. Then he was up, hand out, a smile playing barely at his mouth.

"Yes. I'll take you up on that. Gladly, love."


End file.
